Ohio: Adult Conviction Expungement and Record-Sealing Eligibility

Requirements one by one

Relief name and legal effect

Ohio offers both sealing and expungement under R.C. 2953.32. Sealing
closes official records from ordinary public access while preserving the uses
listed in R.C. 2953.34. Expungement requires most record holders to destroy,
delete, and erase the record so it becomes permanently irretrievable.

Expungement still has exceptions. BCI keeps a narrow record for deciding
qualification or disqualification for law-enforcement employment. DNA records
and filed fingerprints remain unless a final order establishes that the
conviction was overturned, and law-enforcement investigatory work product is
closed to outsiders rather than necessarily destroyed.

Automatic or clean-slate relief

Ohio has no general automatic conviction-sealing or expungement system. The
ordinary route requires an application and hearing under R.C. 2953.32.

There is a separate prosecutor-initiated route for a low-level controlled-
substance conviction under R.C. 2953.39. It uses the corresponding § 2953.32
clock and still requires a court hearing and findings; it is not automatic.

Convictions eligible by petition

Subject to the exclusions, a person may apply for relief for minor
misdemeanors, other misdemeanors, fourth- and fifth-degree felonies, and one or
two third-degree felonies within the conviction-history limits. Soliciting
improper compensation and a sexually oriented offense after registration ends
can use the special clocks in § 2953.32(B).

Third- or fourth-degree misdemeanor domestic violence and violation-of-a-
protection-order convictions may be sealed, but the statute bars expungement of
those records. Connected convictions can sometimes count as one for the
third-degree-felony cap.

Excluded offenses and statuses

The general route excludes convictions under the listed commercial-driver,
driver-license, license-suspension, traffic, and motor-vehicle chapters;
nonsexual felony offenses of violence; sexually oriented offenses while the
person remains subject to registration; most offenses involving a victim under
13; theft in office; first- and second-degree felonies; and first- or
second-degree misdemeanor domestic violence.

A third-degree felony is excluded when the person's record exceeds the detailed
felony and misdemeanor caps in § 2953.32(A)(1)(h). Pending criminal proceedings
also prevent the court from making the findings required to grant relief.

Waiting period and when it starts

Sealing is available six months after final discharge for a minor misdemeanor;
one year after final discharge for other misdemeanors and fourth- or fifth-
degree felonies; three years after final discharge for one or two qualifying
third-degree felonies; and seven years after final discharge for soliciting
improper compensation. A formerly registrable offense uses five years after the
registration requirements end.

Expungement uses six months after final discharge for a minor misdemeanor and
one year for another misdemeanor. For a felony, add ten years to the date when
the applicable sealing application first becomes available. That ordinarily
means 11 years after final discharge for an eligible fourth- or fifth-degree
felony and 13 years for an eligible third-degree felony.

Sentence, restitution, and new-record conditions

The statutory clock begins at final discharge. The court must also find that
no criminal proceeding is pending and that the person has been rehabilitated to
the court's satisfaction.

R.C. 2953.32 does not list a separate, generally applicable requirement that
restitution, fines, or fees be paid before filing. Because final-discharge
status can depend on the sentence and case record, a person should verify the
court's discharge entry rather than infer eligibility from elapsed time alone.

Petition process and decision standard

Apply to the sentencing court. One application may request relief for more than
one case. The statute sets a $50 application fee and permits a local fee up to
$50, regardless of the number of records, unless a poverty affidavit establishes
indigency.

The hearing must occur 45 to 90 days after filing. The court gives the prosecutor
at least 60 days' notice; the prosecutor may object no later than 30 days before
the hearing. Requested victim notice and victim participation are preserved.
The court checks eligibility and timing, pending cases, rehabilitation, the
government's need to retain the record, and victim statements. If the statutory
findings favor relief, the court orders sealing or expungement.

Who can still see or use the record

R.C. 2953.34 lists access for courts, law enforcement, prosecutors, probation
and parole, corrections, BCI, specified fingerprint-based background checks,
registration decisions, and other named purposes. An otherwise admissible prior
conviction can still be proved in a later criminal proceeding even after a
sealing or expungement order.

Expungement is stronger than sealing but not absolute. BCI's narrow law-
enforcement-employment record, DNA and fingerprint exceptions, specified school
and public-office records, and closed investigatory work product can remain.

Boundaries and alternative relief

Ohio has separate statutes for human-trafficking victims, obsolete firearm-
transport convictions, low-level controlled-substance prosecutor applications,
nonconviction records, pardons, DNA-based innocence, and juvenile records.
Federal and out-of-state convictions are outside this survey even though
§ 2953.32 contains a filing provision for them.

What trips people up

Ohio expungement is not just another word for sealing. Most record holders
must permanently destroy an expunged record, but the statute preserves narrow
BCI, biometric, later-case, and investigatory exceptions.

The felony expungement clock is much longer than the sealing clock. The
ten-year period is added after the applicable felony sealing date; it does not
replace the initial one-, three-, seven-, or registration-based wait.

Some domestic-violence records are sealing-only. A third- or fourth-degree
misdemeanor domestic-violence conviction and a protection-order conviction can
fit sealing, but not expungement, if the other requirements are met.

Common questions

Can Ohio seal more than one case in one application? Yes. Section
2953.32(D)(3) permits one application to request sealing or expungement of more
than one case and uses one state application fee, plus any permitted local fee.

Does a pending charge matter even after the waiting period ends? Yes. The
court must determine that no criminal proceeding is pending before granting
relief.

Does expungement erase fingerprints and DNA? Not ordinarily. R.C.
2953.34(F) preserves filed fingerprints and DNA-database records unless a final
court order establishes that the conviction was overturned.

Statutes and sources

• Ohio Rev. Code §§ 2953.31(B), 2953.32(B), and 2953.32(D) — definitions,
  eligible and excluded convictions, sealing and expungement clocks, hearing,
  findings, fees, and record destruction.
  https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-2953.32
  (accessed 2026-07-19)
• Ohio Rev. Code § 2953.34(A)–(B), (F), and (I) — retained access, later-case
  use, biometric and investigatory-work-product exceptions.
  https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-2953.34
  (accessed 2026-07-19)
• Ohio Rev. Code § 2953.39(B), (F)–(G) — prosecutor application for low-level
  controlled-substance convictions.
  https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-2953.39
  (accessed 2026-07-19)